The North American box office may be struggling, but it is a different story for film industries in countries that have managed to contain the global coronavirus pandemic. Over the weekend, the Chinese box office was able to overtake the North American one when it comes to earnings.

Variety reports that the Chinese overall box office was able to add $46.4 million to its cumulative box office total, bringing it to $1.99 billion and well on its way to breaking the $2 billion mark.

The publication notes that the only reason the Chinese box office was unable to reach the $2 billion milestones was because of the lack of a new release, resulting in a decline of 32 percent when compared to the previous session.

The Wrap points out that this is a turnaround from last year when the North American box office brought in $11.4 billion and China brought in $9.2 billion.

Because China has been able to bring the coronavirus under control, the country has not only been able to reopen theaters but has even allowed them to operate at 75 percent capacity. If things continue in the same vein, China is set to become the world’s number one movie market.

The lack of blockbuster Hollywood releases has also allowed local films to become top-earners in China. For instance, the past two weeks have seen the drama My People, My Homeland earns $360 million.

In fact, 2020’s largest film is expected to be The Eight Hundred, a patriotic war film that was able to beat Tenet at the Chinese box office. Back in September, The Eight Hundred earned $8.3 million in just one day, despite being on its third weekend. The revenue put it on track to outearn Tenet, which had just premiered in the country.

The Eight Hundred has now gone on to earn $460 million worldwide, with most of that coming from Chinese audiences. In second place is Bad Boys For Life, whose worldwide box office total is at $426.5 million.

Whether North America and the United States specifically will be able to retake the crown from China will depend on their success at containing the global coronavirus pandemic. Currently, the Oct. 19 update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pegs the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country at 8,128,524. Deaths caused by COVID-19 are now at 218,986 people.

Worldwide, the global coronavirus pandemic has now taken 1,111,998 lives, according to the Oct. 19 COVID-19 dashboard provided by the World Health Organization. There are now 39,944,882 confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world.